A Germanic language. A major international language. A UN
language. The official language of the USA, Canada, Great Britain,
Ireland (together with Irish), Australia, New Zealand, India (with
temporary status) and 15 African states including the Republic of
South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and some others. The mother
tongue for some 508 million people. Spoken by some 1 billion people
worldwide.

A Germanic language. The official language of Germany, Austria,
and Liechtenstein and one of the official languages of Switzerland,
Luxemburg, and Belgium. The mother tongue for some 128 million
people.

An Austronesian language called Malay (some scientists consider
it to be a dialect of Malay) before 1945. The official language of
Indonesia under the name Bahasa Indonesia, used also for
international communication. The mother tongue for some 160 million
people.

The official language of Japan (130 million speakers). There
also some speakers of Japanese in the USA (about 1 million speakers
in Hawaii), Brazil, Peru, China, Canada, Argentine, Mexico, and
some other countries. Links of Japanese with other languages have
been a matter of scholarly debate. Currently most linguists link
Japanese to the Altaic languages.

A Germanic (Scandinavian) language. The official language of
Norway. The literary language exists in two forms — Nynorsk
and Bokmal (the latter is closer to Danish). The mother tongue for
some 5 million people.